Will Brexit force recruiters to automate?

As someone who is still a little dismayed by the referendum result in true British spirit we do now have to make the best of it. The challenge is how to do this when we continue to experience increasing demand for key workers such as engineers, technicians and sales staff.

The care and agriculture sectors face a bigger dilemma because the essential but mostly unskilled roles are undertaken by EU workers who may not maintain automatic right to work. I believe the answer lies in automation and the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to remove our reliance on relatively low skilled labour. It allows domestic companies to operate efficiently in the UK and trade competitively on an international stage.

Automation is not a new phenomenon. What is still in it’s relative infancy is customer interaction with automation. Witness the self-service supermarket check-outs to recognise we must be able to do this better. No, I don’t need a bag, please just let me pay! Amazon already has a store where no check-out is required – surely a blessing. This simple example may provide some insight and we could pose the question: could a robot:

1 Replace an exhaust system on a van or car? Probably as it put it there in the first place.

2 Harvest a field of soft fruit? Yes, have a look at Fieldworks Robotics to see the developments in this area.

3 Interview candidates? Come on, you are pushing it now surely!

But yes they could, and we are already implementing AI-driven automated processes in recruitment. The list goes on and as employers we need to think about how we embrace automation and AI rather than relying on what could be a diminishing labour pool.